Border Wall Threatens National Wildlife Refuge That's Been 40 Years In The Making

A white-tailed deer emerges from the brush. The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge has some of the richest biological diversity in North America — with 1,200 plants, 300 butterflies, and 700 vertebrates, of which 520 are birds.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

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Originally published on January 17, 2020 10:01 am

Over the past 41 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been buying up land on the lower Texas-Mexico border to protect one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America from developers and farmers.

But the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is a hotspot for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, as well as biodiversity. That's why the Trump administration is planning to build 110 miles of border wall through the valley (which is actually a river delta).

Pieces of that wall will go directly through the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge because it is land already owned by the federal government. Elsewhere on the Texas border, construction of the president's wall is being slowed by difficulties acquiring private land. It can take months or years to take private property through eminent domain.

"It's a tragic situation," said Caroline Brouwer, vice president for government affairs at the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the nation's often overlooked refuge system. "Fish and Wildlife staff have worked on this issue for decades and decades. And it's being torn down in front of our eyes."

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"A string of pearls"

Back in 1979, the idea was to save a strip of native habitat along the Rio Grande, known as Tamaulipan thornscrub in the rapidly urbanizing valley. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began to buy up pieces of land and assemble what they called "a string of pearls."

Tony Zavaleta stands at his historic ranch east of Brownsville, Texas, where he says a wildlife refuge next door has helped the deer population. He's even spotted a cougar.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

Today, the agency owns 135 individual tracts comprising nearly 105,000 acres, stretching along the last 275 river miles from Falcón Dam to the Gulf of Mexico. Fish & Wildlife has spent about $82 million and the refuge network is still growing. Under congressional authorization, the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge will ultimately have 132,500 acres.

It did take time for some folks in the area to embrace the concept.

"When they first started buying up land I was very upset, didn't believe it could work, didn't want the federal government to be my neighbor," says Tony Zavaleta, a retired anthropologist with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His extended family has owned property on the serpentine river since South Texas was part of New Spain. From the deck of his rustic cabin, Zavaleta has watched a rare mountain lion prowl his property. Now he's a believer.

Snake skin (left) and animal footprints are seen on Zavaleta's ranch. Wildlife conservationists are wondering how much of an obstruction the barrier will be to animals that range along the river.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

"Forty years ago, there were no white-tailed deer anywhere near here. You had to go north or south to find white-tailed deer," Zavaleta says. "Today, the white-tailed deer are all over the place. And so it's been a huge success."

Fish and Wildlife told NPR that the border wall may impact 8,839 acres of native habitat on 30 separate tracts of its land. Wildlife conservationists are wondering how much of an obstruction the barrier will be to animals that range along the river.

Filling in the gaps

Betty Perez runs a family ranch north of the town of La Joya and is past president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a private group adamantly opposed to the border wall. As soon as President Trump announced his big, beautiful wall was coming, she knew the government would be looking for acreage it already owned.

"The Fish and Wildlife land is what's been targeted first because it's easy. It's the first thing you can get to without having to worry about the process of buying land from people," she says, pausing while rolling out a round hay bale for her mama cows.

Perez helps sustain the wildlife refuges by raising native plants such as yucca, catclaw acacia and wolfberry that she sells to Fish and Wildlife. The agency uses the plants to revegetate farmland and turn it back into natural terrain.

Wildlife defenders have fought the border barrier before.

Betty Perez poses with her dogs in an area on her ranch that she is designating as a wildlife corridor. She is past president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, which is adamantly opposed to the border wall.

VerÃ³nica G. CÃ¡rdenas for NPR

In the late 2000s, the Bush administration constructed 55 miles of border fence in the Rio Grande Valley. Seven noncontiguous miles of it crossed or bordered wildlife tracts. This time around, the Trump administration is building twice that much barrier in the Rio Grande Valley — 110 miles — and 18 noncontiguous miles will cross refuge land.

"Now they're wanting to fill those gaps in," Perez says. "And if there's a continuous wall it would be very devastating for wildlife."

The four counties of the lower Rio Grande Valley are home to 1,200 plants, 300 butterflies and 700 vertebrates, 520 of which are birds, according to Fish and Wildlife. Among the most common vertebrates are deer, bobcat, armadillos, javelina hogs, the Texas tortoise, and an endangered cat — the small, spotted ocelot.

"We're afraid that the wall will act like a barrier when it floods, which it does down here," says Perez. "We get the hurricanes in South Texas. And if that happens the wildlife that are near the river are going to drown. The other thing that's happening," she adds, "the wall blocks wildlife from getting to the river to drink. That's their main source of water."

Balancing wildlife protection with border security

Who in the federal government will speak up for the animals?

Thirteen years ago, that person was Ken Merritt. He was the manager of the entire Fish and Wildlife refuge complex in South Texas. When he learned that Bush's fence would traverse seven miles of their protected tracts, Merritt sounded the alarm.

Caracaras--a raptor that often feeds on carrion--take wing near Perez's ranch. CBP says it is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to mitigate the wall's impact on critters, but an official concedes it's not easy to protect wildlife while strengthening border security.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

"Back then — and I don't think it's any different than now — we had a very narrow refuge established along the river. If you cut that in half with a fence that really can't [be] crossed by terrestrial wildlife, you have a big problem."

He submitted an official report with an unambiguous conclusion: walls and wildlife sanctuaries don't mix. But, in the tense atmosphere after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when the government was anxious to beef up border security, "That was not a well-received document," he says. In fact, Merritt says he was sidelined at Fish and Wildlife because he opposed the border fence. He retired the next year.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tells NPR the agency is concerned about the risk that a barrier poses to animals that cannot escape floods. She says their wildlife experts are working with Customs and Border Protection "to construct large aprons around all future gates along new levee border wall to create areas where wildlife can escape rising water during flood events." She said CBP has told them that agents will open the gates during high water events.

Perez waters the native plants that she grows on her ranch. Most of these plants will be bought by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revegetate farmland that is part of the wildlife refuge complex.

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

But Fish and Wildlife stopped short of saying it opposes the wall, like Merritt did in 2007. He's in touch with colleagues who still work there. "A lot of them are worried about their careers," Merritt says. "I think most of them have been told not to say a word."

For its part, CBP confirms that it is working with Fish and Wildlife to mitigate the wall's impact on critters, but an official concedes it's not easy to protect wildlife while strengthening border security.

"Can we design it so that it is not as impactful, to develop like a passage corridor? I'll be honest, those are some challenges that are happening along the whole entire southwest border where we're putting in wall," says Carmen Qualia, an assistant chief with the Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley.

What's more, Trump's border wall dwarfs Bush's border fence. The current wall is nearly twice as high — 30 feet — which is taller than a two-story house. Floodlights will be on all night long. And an enforcement zone on the south side of the wall will extend out 150 feet. To put that in perspective, 150 feet is the width of a six-lane highway.

To build the massive border barrier through sensitive areas, the Department of Homeland Security has suspended 31 federal laws that protect environmental and cultural features.

Congress has already attempted to protect some of the most important natural and cultural areas along the lower Rio Grande from the bulldozers. A 2019 appropriations bill included language instructing CBP not to build the wall in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the National Butterfly Center, or Bentsen/Rio Grande Valley State Park, among other places. But those are just the crown jewels. Conservationists say all of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge has to be intact for the "string of pearls" to be viable.

Mexico is seen across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.The Rio Grande Valley is where four climates converge--temperate, desert, coastal and sub-tropical--which has created rich biodiversity. .

Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Laredo, inserted the language that protects those premier natural areas. He also says he may try to carve out more of the refuge network for protection.

"That certainly is a concern and this will be something that I will work try to protect. Absolutely," he said in a phone interview.

Time is of the essence. Wall contractors are already on the ground pouring concrete and erecting the tall steel bollards in the Rio Grande Valley.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The Rio Grande Valley of Texas is a hotspot for illegal immigration, drug smuggling and biodiversity. It's where the Trump administration wants to build more than a hundred miles of border wall. The government has had problems acquiring private land, so it's building first in federal nature sanctuaries. As NPR's John Burnett reports, Trump's wall will bulldoze through a wildlife refuge network that has taken 40 years to establish.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: Back in 1979, the idea was to save a strip of native habitat along the Rio Grande. Down here beside the moss-colored river, the call of the chachalaca is a familiar sound at sunrise.

(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CALLING)

BURNETT: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wanted to protect this corridor from the farmers and developers who were rapidly transforming the southern tip of Texas, so it began to buy up pieces of land and assembled what they called a string of pearls. Today the agency owns 135 individual tracts stretching to the Gulf of Mexico. The corridor is known as the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. It's taken time for some people to get comfortable with the concept.

TONY ZAVALETA: When they first started buying up land, I was very upset, didn't believe it could work, didn't want the federal government to be my neighbor.

BURNETT: Tony Zavaleta is a retired anthropologist whose extended family has owned property on the serpentine river since Texas was part of New Spain. We're sitting on his deck, watching the sun sink over the thorn brush. From here, he has spotted a rare mountain lion prowling his property. Now he's a believer.

ZAVALETA: Forty years ago, there were no white-tailed deer anywhere near here. You'd have to go north or south to find white-tailed deer. Today the white-tailed deer are all over the place, and so it's been a huge success.

BURNETT: Fish and Wildlife tells NPR that a border wall could impact nearly 9,000 acres of its nature sanctuaries. Now wildlife conservationists are wondering how much of an obstruction the barrier will be to animals that range along the river. Betty Perez runs a ranch north of the town of La Hoya, where she rolls out a round bale of hay.

(SOUNDBITE OF COWS MOOING)

BETTY PEREZ: Come on, mamas. Let's go. Come on, Blanca.

BURNETT: In addition to her ranch work, she belongs to the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a private group adamantly opposed to the border wall. As soon as Trump announced his big, beautiful wall was coming, Perez knew the government would be looking for land it already owned.

PEREZ: The Fish and Wildlife land is what's being targeted first because it's easy. You know, it's the first thing you can get to without having to worry about all the process of buying land from people.

BURNETT: Betty Perez actually helped sustain the refuges by raising native plants that she sells to Fish and Wildlife. They use them to revegetate farmland and turn it back into natural terrain. She walks through her nursery, where most of the plants prick and stab a person.

PEREZ: This is wolfberry. This is the yucca, the Spanish Dagger. This is the whitebrush, blackbrush, catclaw acacia.

BURNETT: Wildlife defenders have fought the border barrier before. In the late 2000s, the Bush administration constructed 55 miles of non-contiguous border fence in the Rio Grande Valley. This time around, the Trump administration is building on twice that much.

PEREZ: So now they're wanting to fill those gaps in. And if there's a continuous wall, it would be very devastating for wildlife.

BURNETT: For deer and bobcat, for armadillos and javelina hogs, for the Texas tortoise and the small spotted ocelot, an endangered cat.

PEREZ: We're afraid that the wall will act like a barrier when it floods, which it does down here. We get the hurricanes down here in south Texas. And if that happens, the wildlife that's near the river is going to drown. The other thing that's happening is that when the wall - if the wall goes up, it blocks wildlife from getting to the river to drink. That's their main source of water.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)

PEREZ: No barking. No.

BURNETT: Who in the government will speak up for the animals? Thirteen years ago, that person was Ken Merritt. He was the manager of the whole refuge complex in South Texas for Fish and Wildlife. When he learned that Bush's fence would traverse seven miles of refuge land, Merritt sounded the alarm.

KEN MERRITT: Back then - and I don't think it's any different than now - we had a very narrow refuge established along the river. If you cut that in half with a fence that really can't be accessed or crossed by terrestrial wildlife, you have a big problem.

BURNETT: He submitted an official report with an unambiguous conclusion. Walls and wildlife sanctuaries don't mix. But in the tense atmosphere after 9/11, when the government was anxious to beef up border security, he says...

MERRITT: That was not a well-received document.

BURNETT: In fact, Ken Merritt says because he opposed the border fence, he was sidelined at Fish and Wildlife. He retired the next year. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they are concerned about the risk that a barrier poses to animals that cannot escape a flood. She says the service is working with Customs and Border Protection to construct large ramps leading to the gates in the wall, and those gates will be open during floods to let critters pass through. But Fish and Wildlife stopped short of saying it opposes the wall like Ken Merritt did in 2007. He says he stays in touch with colleagues who still work there.

MERRITT: A lot of them are worried about their careers, you know, if they would say something. I think most of them have been told not to say a word.

BURNETT: For its part, CBP concedes it's not easy to protect wildlife while strengthening border security. Carmen Qualia is an assistant chief with the Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley.

CARMEN QUALIA: Can we design it so that it is not as impactful to develop, like, a passage corridor? I'll be honest that those are some challenges that are happening across the whole entire southwest border where we're putting in wall.

BURNETT: What's more, Trump's border wall dwarfs Bush's border fence. The current wall is nearly twice as high - 30 feet, taller than a two-story house. Floodlights will be on all night long, and an enforcement zone on the south side of the wall will extend out 150 feet. To put that in perspective, 150 feet is the width of a six-lane highway. To build it, Homeland Security has suspended 31 federal laws that protect environmental and cultural features.

CAROLINE BROUWER: It's a tragic situation.

BURNETT: Caroline Brouwer is with the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the nation's often-overlooked refuge system.

BROUWER: Fish and Wildlife Service staff have worked on this issue for decades and decades, and it's being torn down in front of our eyes.

BURNETT: Congress has already attempted to protect the most important natural and cultural areas along the Rio Grande from the bulldozers and cranes and concrete trucks. They told CBP it could not build the wall in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the National Butterfly Center or Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, among other places. But those are just the crown jewels. Conservationists say all of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge has to be intact for the corridor to be viable.

I spoke to Representative Henry Cuellar. He's the Democrat from Laredo who inserted language in the appropriations bill to save those premier natural areas. While we did the interview, Cuellar said he was looking at a map of the extensive refuge system, the string of pearls. I asked him if he was prepared to carve out more of it for protection.

HENRY CUELLAR: That certainly is a concern, and this will be something that I will work to try to protect, absolutely.

BURNETT: Time is of the essence. Wall contractors are already pouring concrete and erecting the tall steel bollards down in the Rio Grande Valley.